BFTG Charlton (H)

[Maguire]

Also felt they were ignoring Gunter too much as lost count of the number of times he appeared to be in acres of space/the best option and yet the more complex option was attempted.

Absolutely this.

[bishmanbosh92]

Habsi : 6 Very little to do
Gunter : 7 Mostly solid few silly moments
Obita : 6 still gives away the ball to easily but never looked threatened
Mc Shane : 8 Solid as always
Hector : 7 never looked Troubled
Tish : 7 Very good young talent here never gave up when he lost the ball
Norwood : 7 Normal reliable self
Piazon : 7 Set up the goal , but is far to weak and needs to bulk up
John : 6 Few good runs but very lackluster
Sa : 7 few good balls and runs , first touch was heavy at times
Blackman : 8 The boy cant stop scoring long may it continue

Williams 7: Provided the driving force the team needed
G Mac 7: looked threatening when he came on
Fernandez 6: few nice passes

[Schmeichel the dog]

Am I the only one who didn't like that 10 minutes of passing sideways?

Yes

Would have much preferred for us to have gone for the jugular once we went ahead against a team that offered virtually nothing and were completely shot once they went down to ten men and their park the bus game plan had failed. I guess it was what is nowadays considered a 'professional job' but we could have won that game by two or three at the end. That said, it was also exactly the sort of game that we might have lost last season and all the best teams need to know how to grind out results when they need to.

[Jack Celliers]

I thought it was a great game to experience - like a long film that built and built towards a stirring finish.

That was some side to put out for an injury hit team lacking Vydra, Ferdinand, Bond, Williams, HRK, etc who all might have been considered first choices.

Charlton really came an parked a bus in a way I haven't seen for years, and it needed a little spell of brilliant Puzon passing to enliven the first half and then a great cross from him to set up the goal. He was influential, despite not putting in a 100% performance.

The Captain and the goalscorer were the real stars today though. Signing McShane always seemed sensible business; now it seems like genius. Strikers who have 10-goal autumns in the Championship should be worth millions. Will Blackman renew his contract with us? The idea of reversion to the mean suggests his goals will probably dry up if he does. but there is such a lot to his all-round play now - that was a lovely red card!

[paultheroyal]

We seem to be forgetting Quinn!!

When fit he will walk straight into that team.

Mccleary needs to start too.

[bobby1413]

Mccleary needs to start too.

Agreed.

It's amazing that we did a double substitution yesterday brining on Williams and McCleary. Two quality players yet they're on the bench. Another indicator of the depth in the squad.

I think Vydra now fit or at least available for Rotherham.

What's happening with Anton and Quinn?

[Ian Royal]

We seem to be forgetting Quinn!!

When fit he will walk straight into that team.

Mccleary needs to start too.

Totally agree on Quinn, I'm still not really sure why Clarke hasn't gone with a midfield three of Norwood, Williams and Tshibola with Tish as the Quinn equivalent (obviously yesterday Williams needed the rest).

Not really on McCleary though. Blackman's got the right forward position totally sewn up and HRK and Vydra are slightly better suited to the left (more roaming) forward position than McCleary - though on John's showing yesterday I'd have GMc in over him any day, even on the 'wrong' side.

[Nameless]

We've come a long way.
As some people commented pre match that is exactly the sort of game we have failed to win so many times in the past. Too often we h e struggled to break a team like that down, and then conceded a Late sucker goal as we flooded forward desperately trying to score.
Yesterday we were patient, didn't panic, remained controlled at the back and kept the confided that we had the players who would create us a goal.
Yes we probably should have won by 3 or 4 but all game it looked like it was teams from different divisions playing. We just did everything better than them. A successful season needs the team to play in different ways, to find answers to different problems and sometimes get wins by sweat rather than artistry. The three points yesterday were hard won but as valuable as those from Boro or Ipswich.

[3points]

I like the way Clarke clearly has some plan Bs with this squad. Very clear tactical switch at HT to move Blackman forward and effectively go 4-4-2 with Piazon moving to left and John to the right. And this isn't the first time he's done it this season.

Gunter really frustrated me yesterday. Gets into some good positions and then just wastes the ball / loses momentum by stopping and passing the ball sideways or backwards. His crossing was really poor as well - he just clips the ball aimlessly into the box without looking to pick out a player or hitting it in with pace. The cross he provided for Piazon's goal at Burnley shows what he should do more often.

Piazon does some good things but tries to be too clever and intricate at this level at times. Clearly has talent, but needs to work out how to use it in this team and this league and improve his decision making. Just needs to take an extra touch sometimes and play the simple ball; other times he needs to dwell less on it. But can't see him keeping his place once Vydra and HRK are fit. But good to have on the bench to try to unpick the "park the bus" teams who I am sure we'll encounter many times at the Mad Stad this season.

[melonhead]

Good game.patient and disciplined performance. Won ugly.
Set up very narrow which allowed Charlton to play a high line first half and compress play in the middle third.
Small change second half bringing blackman more central made a difference, Williams' drive made some more, and the sending off tipped the balance further.

Piazon awful for majority of game. I'd have taken him off after about 10 minutes, which shows what I know because he slowly improved and came good in the end.

Blackman is a ledge.

[strap]

Interesting point. Why are we being shown as second when we have an identical record to Boro. I thought it was alphabetical then.

Head to Head?

Yes. The longer version:

9 Method of Determining League Positions

9.1 At the end of each Season the Club in each Division scoring the highest number of points shall be declared the Champion Club of that Division. Three points shall be awarded for each League Match won. One point will be awarded to each Club for a drawn match. If two or more Clubs have scored the same number of points their position in the Division shall be determined on goal difference, that is to say, the difference between the total number of goals scored by and against a Club in League Matches in that Season, and the higher or highest placed Club shall be the Club with the highest goal difference. If any two or more Clubs have scored the same number of points and have the same goal difference the higher or highest placed Club shall be the Club having scored the most goals in League Matches in that Season.

9.2 If two or more Clubs have the same number of points, goal difference and goals scored the highest placed Club shall be determined by the respective League records against each other, taking into account in order of precedence, points gained, goal difference and goals scored. If the above procedures do not separate the Clubs, then the Clubs concerned shall play off a deciding League Match or Matches under arrangements approved by the Board on a neutral ground.

http://www.football-league.co.uk/global/section3.aspx

Many thanks for that Harry, I have learnt something this morning. When you think about it, it's pretty logical, but I neber realised it had been enshrined in the regs. Anyone know when this was introduced?

[jd82]

First home game in about 18 months, and boy was it dull. Went with a Charlton season ticket holder who predicted they would be tidy in the middle and utterly woeful in the final third. He wasn't wrong.

Hector and McShane largely untroubled, don't think either lost a header all day.
Gunter was in about 35 yards of space for the entire first half and was routinely ignored by all his team mates.
Norwood could have moved the ball a bit faster imo, which is what we needed to open Charlton up especially after the sending off, but was otherwise decent.
The service to Sa in the first half was pretty bad, everything as bollock or chin height.
Piazon was terribly lightweight for the majority but did grow into the game and ultimately won us the points with a peachy cross.

Would have liked to seen us go for the juggler once we had the first, but Charlton do have a knack of scoring goals at the death so keepball, whilst not all that popular around me in the UW, was probably the right call by SC.

One of the biggest homers of a ref I think I've every seen at the Madjeski, which was nice.

Thought charlton's only bright spot was the Everton loanee, otherwise they look average at best.

[Huckleberry Hound]

Am I the only one who didn't like that 10 minutes of passing sideways?

Would you rather we risk giving it away & conceding on the break?

The 3 points were in the bag. Keeping them was the priority.

Charlton weren't going anywhere. There's a happy medium that wasn't met and they were ripe for the picking. We've been relegated and missed out on playoffs because of goal difference in the past.

The last time we missed out on the play offs it was because we couldn't beat 8-man Yeovil. Beating teams when they've been reduced to 10 (or fewer) has been a consistent failure of ours in recent years.

Let's not forget last year we lost at home to Charlton in a similar type of game. We're making good progress.

[Upper West Ginger]

Would have liked to seen us go for the juggler......

That has just become my new favourite phrase!

[exileinleeds]

First home game in about 18 months, and boy was it dull. Went with a Charlton season ticket holder who predicted they would be tidy in the middle and utterly woeful in the final third. He wasn't wrong.

Hector and McShane largely untroubled, don't think either lost a header all day.
Gunter was in about 35 yards of space for the entire first half and was routinely ignored by all his team mates.
Norwood could have moved the ball a bit faster imo, which is what we needed to open Charlton up especially after the sending off, but was otherwise decent.
The service to Sa in the first half was pretty bad, everything as bollock or chin height.
Piazon was terribly lightweight for the majority but did grow into the game and ultimately won us the points with a peachy cross.

Would have liked to seen us go for the juggler once we had the first, but Charlton do have a knack of scoring goals at the death so keepball, whilst not all that popular around me in the UW, was probably the right call by SC.

One of the biggest homers of a ref I think I've every seen at the Madjeski, which was nice.

Thought charlton's only bright spot was the Everton loanee, otherwise they look average at best.

New half time entertainer? Does he juggle the escape goat?

[jd82]

Would have liked to seen us go for the juggler......

That has just become my new favourite phrase!

Would have been better if it wasn't a syntaxical abortion of a sentence.

[3points]

Would have liked to seen us go for the juggler......

That has just become my new favourite phrase!

Would have been better if it wasn't a syntaxical abortion of a sentence.

[Avon Royal]

5. We missed HRK

Go home Sutekh, you're drunk.

[Sutekh]

Am I the only one who didn't like that 10 minutes of passing sideways?

Yes

Would have much preferred for us to have gone for the jugular once we went ahead against a team that offered virtually nothing and were completely shot once they went down to ten men and their park the bus game plan had failed. I guess it was what is nowadays considered a 'professional job' but we could have won that game by two or three at the end. That said, it was also exactly the sort of game that we might have lost last season and all the best teams need to know how to grind out results when they need to.

Absolutely. 10 minutes of playing keep ball is just dull and boring, we should have looked to get another goal as you never know whether goal difference is going to be important at the end of the season.

[jd82]

Goal difference is only ever worth 0.5 of a point in relatively unusual circumstances, despite the 'goal difference is worth an extra point' chuff I heard people spouting on the way out. 3 points are worth 3 points every time.